Computing devices such as personal computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, cellular phones, and countless types of Internet-capable devices are increasingly prevalent in numerous aspects of modern life. Over time, the manner in which these devices are providing information to users is becoming more intelligent, more efficient, more intuitive, and less obtrusive.
The trend toward miniaturization of computing hardware, peripherals, sensors, detectors, and image and audio processors, among other technologies, has helped open up a field sometimes referred to as “wearable computing.” In the area of image and visual processing and production, it has become possible to consider wearable displays that place a very small image display element close enough to one or both of the wearer's eyes such that the displayed image fills or nearly fills the field of view, and appears as a normal sized image, such as might be displayed on a traditional image display device. The relevant technology may be referred to as “near-eye displays.”
Near-eye displays are fundamental components of wearable displays, also sometimes called “head-mountable displays”. A head-mountable display places a graphic display close to one or both of the wearer's eyes. To generate the images on the display, a computer processing system can be used.
Emerging and anticipated uses of wearable displays include applications in which users interact in real time with an augmented or virtual reality. These applications can be mission-critical or safety-critical in some fields, such as public safety or aviation.